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In a 5-4 decision, the court handed a win to civil rights advocates who say the tool is essential for advancing economic opportunity. The ruling delivers a blow to banks that argue the legal standard makes credit costlier, and harder to get.

“I do believe a decision going the other way would have essentially rendered housing discrimination laws meaningless,” says Andrew Scherer, a former civil legal aid attorney, who is now policy director at the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School.